Cold Spaghetti

Paul is sick. He was acting lethargic and funny this morning, but still got his work clothes on to continue working on the outside plumbing (he repaired the back faucet yesterday and today, was going to tap into the main line to install a faucet to the side of the house to make it easier to wind/unwind the hose for watering the front yard.) Finally, he gave in and went to bed. He has a temp (100.9 at last check) and I gave him Tylenol to bring it down.

Will is currently napping. He seems fine. He was very “helpful” (read: into *everything*) as I started to tackle projects this morning. These projects include:

– Cleaning out back bathroom/laundry room.
– Organizing cleaning supplies.
– Organizing supplies in laundry/bathroom.
– Doing laundry
– Moving storage shelves to our bathroom
– Organizing and moving Paul’s tools to proper locations
– Going through clothes in guest room closet. Packing to store what stays, gathering other for donation.
– Packing up Will’s closet.
– Organizing our back bathroom with storage shelves for tools and Paul’s housework supplies.

It’s really a several person job over several days. I’m doing pretty well so far (back bathroom/laundry is looking so much better, etc.) but I need some help! I hate that Paul is sick and hope he feels back to normal ASAP!

I’ve had a day to decompress and reflect. These are the lingering things in my head regarding the comprehensives — I’m unloading them and moving on!

Day One:
– Was challenging in that I had to use my skills/knowledge in applied ways not tested before. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do them, but I had to think carefully through them and do my best based on what I knew. In this way, the questions were very cleverly written.
– I was lamenting to Paul that I didn’t get a chance to talk at all about experimental design (something that I know well from coursework at Michigan) — I had been looking forward to pulling this out as a strength. Then, yesterday, I realized that I *did* have an opportunity to use it, but between being tired and the openness of the question, my mind didn’t go there. The question was one part of a three-part question where it asked, within the context of a sampling frame I has been asked to design for a Roll Back Malaria program, if I would make any changes to the baseline. I was so caught up in sampling that I connected the question to survey measures and discussed anthropometric/biomarker/health survey data within the context of evaluation. I didn’t think at all about experimental survey design! Had the question asked if I would make any changes to the design, or survey, or study, I would have totally launched into a discuss of experimental design. Maybe, assuming the read the practice exam I sent them weeks ago, they’ll give me benefit of the doubt since I discussed experimental design at length with citations in the practice exam. I’m hoping I can still pull some partial credit on this one.
– With the extra time, I took a short lie-down in the afternoon to recover from the long night with Will. In retrospect, the lack of sleep really hurt; I wasn’t at my full game. I think I still did well, but I could have rocked it a little more.

Some examples (paraphrased — they are actually long questions!) of Day One:
– You are designing a study with three treatments. Randomly assigning ten men and ten women to each treatment. Write the ANOVA model.
– The actual sizes of the villages differ greatly from the estimated sizes. Using your chosen sampling method, explain how to mitigate this problem and restore an epsem design without increasing workload/decision making in the field.
– Suppose y is a discrete outcome. What method would you use to estimate the above equation and why? Explain what is meant by the method of maximum likelihood. What are the drawbacks of other estimation methods in this case?


Day Two
– The shortest 9 hours of my life! I sat down and started the exam at 8:01am. With the exception of bathroom breaks (lest we forget the growing child applying more and more pressure to my bladder), I did not leave the chair until 4:50pm, when I emailed out the exam and printed it to deliver the hardcopy to Penny. Paul went on two coffee runs for me (once in the morning with Will — for a splurge on a cappucino from CCs– and then for a regular from PJs in the afternoon.) He also made great lunch (veggie pot pie leftovers) and supplied snacks (apples and peanut butter). I was so caught up in the work that I didn’t even ask for these… he predicted the need, made the goods, and set it in front of me. It was exactly what I needed.
– The questions were basically what I thought they would be. They were very challenging in that they were the type of questions one could spend months writing about. It was difficult to properly gage how much time to give each question, how to narrow the scope of what could be said/cited, and how to do it all somewhat eloquently!

A sample of some (paraphrased) questions from Day Two:
– Imagine you’re designing an ethnographic study of access and use of RH services in Lima. How would reading Burawoy impact this study? First, discuss a conventional approach that explores topics and approaches common in public health. Next, discuss Burawoy’s globalization framework. Then discuss how this framework would modify your study.
– How have ‘development theories’ (broadly envisioned) been an influence in reproductive health technologies, programs, and research agendas in the developing world since the 1950s? Should this change? Why/why not and how? Discuss this theme in general, and also explore these ideas through a specific contemporary reproductive health debate/issue/reasearch question of your choice.

I still can’t believe it, but I finished, I’m done. I survived comprehensive examinations.

Now I *completely* understand what those before me mean when they say that the experience really isn’t over until you hear the word “pass.” It does not feel real. Now that the exam is out of my hands, it feels scary. It’s out there… I just have to wait and see if what I did was good enough.

All in all, I feel good about it. There weren’t any surprises, although I was certainly challenged. I’m terrified of stupid mistakes or things I’ve overlooked. I’ve been told that the results should be in after about two weeks. Yikes… how do I keep myself from dwelling on the exam until then?

Please please please… let this be the last time I have to do this! I’m ready to move on the really hard stuff… prospectus and disseration!

…and that’s about all I can say about that right now. Some interesting things that have happened in the last 24 hours:

– 12:22am this morning. Will wakes up and vomits all over himself and Paul. Will is terrified, requires great clean-up, comfort, and all three of us had to change.
– 4:12am. Repeat performance from Will. Bottom line: we did not get much sleep last night!
– 8:05am. Get home, look over questions, realize that Penny only gave me questions for 2 of the 3 sections; I’m missing econometrics.
– 10:30am. Questions arrive directly from Paul, after phone calls and emails. Penny gives extra time to account for not having the questions.

Some issues…
– Turning interacted odds ratios into logistic regression coefficients (usually we do this the other way around!)
– Being way tired!
– Paul made a fantastic dinner (veggie pot pie) and was amazing at helping with Will. He supplied me with snacks (apples, bagel, peanut butter) and lunch (rice and chili) which helped so much. Two thumbs up for a wonderful spouse today!

And *thank you* —
— to everyone who sent emails, cards, phoned, posted to the blog and on and on… I even got flowers from my in-laws tonight! The encouragement means a lot! I just hope I actually manage to pass to live up to all the great support!

Update… Penny has all the needed questions for Day One. I will drop off Will in the morning at his school (around 7:40) and then go to Penny’s house to pick up questions. Home by 8… when I’ll start work! I will email the questions by 5pm to show completion and bring hard copies to Penny when I pick up Will, by 5:30.

As for Day Two… she only has one question. The other two questions are from Carl, my committee chair, of all people… and he is AWOL! In the words of a fellow doctoral student, “Oh, this is so perfect!” I have faith that he, and the questions, will turn up soon.

What drama!

The weather has been so incredibly beautiful (low to mid 60s with wonderful sun!) that outside study breaks have been mandatory. So, Christmas decorations went up! 

See those red cheeks? That (and the lacy rash coating his little body from stern to stem) are why I am thinking fifth disease. *sigh* 

In 19 hours, I am suppose to begin my comprehensive exams. Two days of questions, 8-5 each day.

The update: Penny hadn’t received any questions when I spoke to her around 11 this morning. She didn’t even know that comps were NOT moved to next week. She was going to check email and look into things and get back to me… that was two hours ago. (She’s distracted with contractors and getting appliances and other post-storm business, so there is a reason.) I also left a message on my committee chair’s cell.

I have to have faith that this will work out. I figure that the worst case scenario is that at 8am tomorrow, I start calling faculty one-by-one at home and tell them to send me their questions via email.

The good news is… I’m ready. I’ve reviewed some development theory, read a few articles, crunched a few odds ratios, computed a sample size. At this point, I’m sort of doing the same things over and over again… I’m ready. Let’s go, people!

Me, just finishing helping Will into shoes and jacket and ushering him out the door to school: “I love you, sweetheart.”

Will, taking Paul’s hand and looking back at me: “I luvu, seehart.”

We got a call this afternoon from Will’s school.

“We just wanted to make sure you knew that Will has a rash all over his body.”

“Yup, we know.”

“Okay. We just wanted to be sure!”

Yes. Will has had a rash for awhile. It started about when the fever broken over the Thanksgiving holiday while we were in Mobile. When we first noticed it, it was quite pronounced. I did the “tumbler test” to be satisfied that he didn’t have some sort of blood infection and reminded myself that most rashes are usually benign. I remembered that roseola comes after fever and thought it could be that. And then just figured that it would take awhile to resolve and as long as he wasn’t in any distress, he was okay.

Now I am thinking that he may have fifth disease. He’s got those red “slapped” cheeks and a significant lacy rash all over his trunk and extremities. It’s not much to be alarmed over, it’s very common, and there really isn’t any treatment for fifth disease (named because it’s the “fifth” common rash illness… measles, rubella, scarlett fever, some fourth one and then fifth). But what is interesting is that it is very infectious (but now that he is in the rash stage, he isn’t contagious) and can have complications in pregnant women. (Granted, it’s rare. But gosh darn, I have honestly been tired as hell the last few days.)

As for Will’s rash, I couldn’t get a good picture of his cheeks (the red color washes out in the photos). But we did get a great one of the rash on his (ahem) other cheeks. I’d post it, but I’m afraid the crazy-people mafia would get me for indecency.

So much for everyone being well. First the cat. Then Will. Now what? (And one more day until comps!)